The owners of Progreso Produce Limited I LP filed for Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation for the Boerne, Texas, business Sept. 30 listing more than 60 creditors including many fresh produce companies.

Curtis DeBerry, who signed the bankruptcy filing as managing partner for Progreso Produce, did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment on the case.

Court records show DeBerry reported company debts of $1 million to $10 million with assets of less than $50,000. A notation by the bankruptcy trustee on the case indicates “there does not appear to be any property available to the trustee to pay creditors.”

A meeting of creditors is set for 1 p.m. Nov. 5 in the main U.S. Post Office building in San Antonio.One produce supplier, Gulfshore Produce Inc., Fort Myers, Fla., has already filed a document in the bankruptcy case as a trust beneficiary under the Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act. Neither Gulfshore …

The monthly nonfarm payrolls report put out by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics is perhaps the single most important report in determining the Federal Reserve's outlook for monetary policy at the moment. The fact that it moves markets the most of any regular economic data release reflects this.

However, a new paper by Johns Hopkins economist Jonathan Wright has sparked a lot of chatter about how the seasonal adjustments used by the BLS in the report have become seriously distorted in the wake of the financial crisis of 2008, causing the agency to systematically overestimate job creation from October to April every year since then, while at the same time underestimating job creation over the May-September months.

That's why, every year since 2008, the economy has appeared to stage a "recovery" in the winter months, only to weaken again over the summer.

SUPPLIERS: The world’s biggest container lessor, Textainer, headed by Robert Pedersen, wants to continue to increase its market share in both the dry and reefer container segment.

BY TOMAS KRISTIANSEN Published 07.10.13 at 14:38

One would think that the container-leasing industry had gone through the same slump experienced by many carriers since 2010, that the number of containers leased to the big carriers would have gone down , and that financial results had followed suit. But this is not necessarily the case, and this is especially not the case for the world’s biggest container lessor, New York Stock Exchange listed Textainer, headed by Danish Robert Pedersen. The company has achieved utilization rates of more than 94 percent three years in a row, revenues have grown steadily, and so have returns to the company’s shareholders. This is why, according to Robert Pedersen, now is a good time to expand.

In the wake of the terrorist attack at the Westgate mall in Kenya, a joint committee has been formed within the Kenyan parliament to gather evidence and investigate. The committee is reportedly comprised of members from the National Security and Defense Commissions. The growing unease with Somalis in Kenya is getting attention as well. Al-Shabaab – the group thought to be behind the attack – is based in Somalia.

Last year, we posted a three-part video of a 2011 interview Al-Jazeera conducted with Musa Ismail Obama, the cousin of Barack Obama. In that video, Musa admitted to providing aid to the Dadaab refugee camp in northeastern Kenya.

Asman Kamama, the chairman of the Commission for National Security on the joint committee, is calling for the closure of the Dadaab camp, via Eurasia Review today:

…in the country , there is growing distrust of the Somali community – which …

The evidence of a slowdown in emerging markets has grown in recent months - as we have reported in our briefings on Brazil and Russia - and the issue was brought into sharp focus last week with a sales warning from Unilever.

The consumer goods giant, which generates over half its sales in emerging markets, admitted its third-quarter sales would be lower than expected - in part due to cooling economies including South Africa, Indonesia, Brazil, India and Russia.

Unilever said it expected sales to improve in the fourth quarter but its announcement spooked the market, hitting its shares and prompting more debate about the growth prospects for emerging economies.

There is little doubt markets including the BRICs are not seeing the heady growth they enjoyed in the late nineties and early noughties. It is unlikely they will see that level of growth again. The FMCG sector will have to adapt to a (relatively) slower pace of growth in emerging markets.

In 2007 about $207 million was found in the home of a suspected cartel supplier of meth-precursor chemicals. The pile, which weighed more than 4,500 pounds, is considered the largest drug cash seizure in history.North America clearly has a very big meth problem on its hands, according to the 2013 World Drug Report by the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

From 2010 to 2011 worldwide seizures of methamphetamine by authorities grew by 73% — from 51 tons to 88 tons — and 61% (54 tons) of all seizures were reported by Mexico and the U.S.

The highest methamphetamine seizures were reported by Mexico, where seizures more than doubled, from 13 tons to 31 tons [i.e. the most in the world], and surpassed for the first time those of the United States which seized 23 tons in 2011, up from 15 tons in 2010. ...

Most methamphetamine laboratories continue to be reported by the United States, where …

Russian intransigence has helped Ukraine's integration into Europe. The Kremlin's "soft power", designed to push Ukraine into the Russia-led Eurasian customs union, is in fact achieving the opposite. Never before has Ukraine been so close to signing an association and free-trade agreement with the European Union, a step towards EU membership http://econ.st/1a37NAj